Julia and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
by Fallen Angel of Olympus
Summary: Percy has a twin sister named Andromeda Juliana Jackson AKA Julia Jackson. Julia and Percy has been kicked out of a boarding school... again. Somehow monster and gods has sprung into their life from a Greek Mythology textbook. Can they save their mother from Hades and find the stolen Master Bolt and clear their name? And also suffer a betrayal from a friend?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians**

**This is my first story, okay so review!**

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**_Julia _**_**and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief**_

_**Chapter 1**_

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_I Accidently Vaporize my Pre-Algebra Teacher_

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Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood

If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.

Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.

If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.

But if you recognize yourself in these page-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. you might one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before _they _sense it too, and they'll come for you.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

My name is Percy Jackson and my sister is Julia Jackson.

We are twelve years old. Until a few months ago, We were boarding students at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.

Are we troubled kids?

Yeah you could say that.

I could start at any point in our short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a filed trip to Manhattan-twenty-nine mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.

I know-sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.

But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.

Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smells like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd was cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep without the exception of Julia, who loves to learn mythology.

I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.

Boy, was I wrong because my sister says we have very bad luck that can kill us. Well she was right, not that I was always wrong and I am getting off topic now- so let's get back to my story telling.

See, bad things happen to us on field trips. Like at our fifth-grade school, when we went to Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway, While my sister shot all the cannons aiming at the people who were annoying her which was all of the kids. Of course she got expelled so she wants to keep an eye on me, being a super-protective sister since Gabe and I am getting off topic again. And before that, at our fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim except Julia who had somehow stayed on the catwalk, and then she hit a button on purpose because she got bored and while we were in the shark tank, we were electrocuted in the tank many times because she kept hitting the button and got expelled for paralzing the bones of a couple of kids. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.

This trip, I was determined to be good while Julia said 'she gonna do a prank on teacher just in case if I get in trouble again and get expelled'.

All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, red headed, kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup while Julia is currently wrestling with her and the other kids are betting who would win, which of course is my big sister.

Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin which is weird for Julia because she said Grover has to be taller then the other and keeps failing the finals if he already taken it. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria and Julia had a tantrum about that. Even though she is older than me by a year, she acts very immature.

Anyway, after my sister was beating crap out of Nancy Bobofit and has a couple of bruises and Julia was on watched by Mrs. Dodds and now was throwing wads of sand which that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back at her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on the trip, which was unfair for my sister because she loves me to help her on her pranks.

"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled while Julia was trying to comb my hair which is impossible.

"I already did." Julia said as she sounded frustrated.

"Then do it again." I replied as she rolled her eyes and kept combing my hair.

Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peaunt butter."

He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.

"In your hair and mixed with ketchup?" She questioned as she started to have steam coming out of her ears.

"EWWWW, not that." He answered.

"Stop acting so prissy and a girl." She said.

"HEY!" He yelled as a sandwhich smacked him in the face and Nancy snorted.

"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat and the comb broke and Julia started to get mad.

"That was my last fucking comb!" She raged as she stomped her feet in frustration. And one thing about my older sister, she uses a lot of cuss words when Gabe uses them in our-so-wonderful childhood (note the sarcasm there) and she picked them up. Her hand was twitching as she reached her backpack but I gave her the puppy dog eyes look as she rolled her eyes and stopped but still looked pissed as steam started to come out of her ears.

"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."

Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there but Julia already is doing it now because it's her fault she wasted her money on combs to make my hair straight and finish the challenge, which she was dared by a rich kid for $500 dollars for mom. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.

Mr. Bruner led the museum tour.

He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.

It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousands, three thousands years.

He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a _stele_, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking except Julia who was playing on a 'borrowed' IPhone, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.

Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She was mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. I always wondered what happened to her and I keep looking at Julia because she is always the one trying to get the teachers who were annoying her, quit their jobs and go to another school. She shrugs and says "I didn't do it, but who is the one, who made the teacher quit because I want to challenge him to a prank war." Another thing to know is never challenge my sister to a prank war, she always scares me from the pranks she does. From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured me and my sister were devil spawns. She would point her crooked finger at us and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew we were going to get after-school detention for a month.

One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight while Julia had to take off the gum under the desks which was relief for me, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right." While Julia looked at him weirdly and did her best WTF face.

Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art. Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the _stele_, and both of us stopped doing what we were doing and turned around and said in unison, "Will you shut the fuck up?!"

It came out louder than I meant it to. The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.

"Mr. and Mrs. Jackson," he said, "Please keep that kind of words to a minimum and do you have a comment?"

My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."

While Julia looked at him. "No, I was telling little, sweet Nancy to be quiet." She said sarcastically and pointed to her as her other hand started twitching towards her backpack where she put a frying pan...

Yes a frying pan, she has it and uses it like a weapon and you don't want a pan-holding pissed off Julia.

Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the _stele_. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents Mr. Jackson?"

I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"

"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."

"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"

"God?" Mr. Brunner asked while my sis was guffawing so much.

"King God my ass." She laughed as Mrs. Dodds glared at her as she shrinked down from her gaze.

"Titan," I corrected myself and glaring at my sister.

"And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"

"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me and Julia raised her hand.

"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."

Some snickers from the group.

"Yeah, a real big fucking fight for a teddy bear." Julia mumbled and snickered as thunder rumbled.

"Shush Julia." Grover whispered-yelled at Julia as she looked offended.

"Yes Mrs. Jackson?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Why did Kronos mistake Zeus for a rock like seriously does Zeus looks like a rock or is Kronos very dumb and ignorant or he has a personality of a rock?" She asked as thunder rumbled and Mr. Brunner and Grover looked at the sky nervously.

"I'm sorry but I will answer that question next time dear." Mr. Brunner apologized.

Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

"Busted," Grover muttered.

"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.

At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.

I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."

"What about you Mrs. Jackson?" Mr. Bruner asked Julia as he looked a little disappointed.

"People are random and put weird stuff on the job applications, durr." she answered as she glared at Nancy.

"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

"Yes the nice happy note." She grumbled.

The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.

Grover, Julia and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. and Mrs. Jackson."

I knew that was coming.

I told Grover to keep going. Then we turned towards Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"

"Yes Mr. Brunner?"

Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.

"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told us.

"I already did!"

"About the Titans?"

"No, about real life. And how your studies apply to it."

"Oh."

"What?"

"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you guys to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson and Julia Jackson."

I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard and I could see that my sister feels the same way I do, but now angry.

I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshiped. But Mr. Brunner expected us to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that we both have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. Plus my sis never made past a B+, because she pays more attention then me.

No he didn't expect us to be as good; he expected us to be better. And we just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly all at once.

I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the _stele_, like he'd been at this girl's told us to go outside and eat my lunch.

The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.

Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York State had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.

Nobody else except us seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with lunch tables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing. Grover, Julia and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.

"Detention?" Grover asked.

"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean I'm not a genius."

"Of course you aren't." Julia responded.

"Thanks for the moral support." I said sarcastically.

"Your welcome." She said, not oblivious to the sarcasm.

Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"

I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it as Julia roared with laughter.

I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. We hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home and Julia would follow me cause she's itching to go home. She'd hug us and be glad to see me and my sister, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send us right back to Yancy, remind us that we had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and Julia's tenth school because of all the girl's only schools she's been sent to and we were probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me and Julia would stop her tough attitude and burst out crying from the sad look.

Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.

I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends as Julia clenched her hands into fists and her eye twitched.

I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.

"Oops." She grinned at us with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.

I tried to stay cool and Julia was starting to get red and was standing up, nose to nose against Nancy. The school counselor had told us a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But we were so mad both our minds went blank. A wave roared in my ears. I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain but was now running away with a frightened look on her face as our jaws dropped because there was a dragon head made out of water and was somehow breathing fire at Nancy as my anger drained away and the dragon dissolved in water. But Nancy was still screaming, "Percy and Julia pushed me!" But her skin was pale from the water dragon breathing fire.

Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.

Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"

"—the water—"

"—like it grabbed her—"

"-and turned into-"

"-a dragon and started breathing-"

"-fire and dissolved-"

"-back into water-"

We didn't know what they were talking about the first thing but we did knew about the dragon part. All I knew was that we were in trouble again. As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned onto us. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if we'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey "

"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."

"And cleaning the gum under the desks." She grumbled too as she looked green thinking about it.

"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.

"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her." We stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death. She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.

"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.

"But—"

"You—will—stay—here."

Grover looked at me desperately.

"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."

"That was very brave, better luck next time." Julia said with a thumbs up as she had a small grin on her face.

"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at us. "Now."

Nancy Bobofit smirked. I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Plus Julia gave her the supreme I'll-promise-you-I'll-torture-you-when-I-get-out-of-here look as Nancy went paler than she already is and her pants got wet.

Then we turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at us to come on. How'd she get there so fast? Julia also looked confused as she tilted her head and shrugged and ran up the steps.

We have moments like that a lot, when both of our brains falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it.

The school counselor told us this was part of our ADHD, our brains misinterpreting things.

I wasn't so sure. We went after Mrs. Dodds.

Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel. I looked back up as Julia snorted by reading the cover of the book he was reading. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.

Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop. But apparently that wasn't the plan.

We followed her deeper into the museum as Julia was spiriting towards her. When I finally caught up to them, we were back in the Greek and Roman section. Except for us, the gallery was empty.

Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling. Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...

"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.

I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."

While Julia did the opposite. She said confused, "What the fuck are you fucking talking about?"

She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"

The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil. She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me. I realized I said that out loud as Julia snorted again.

"Get away with what?" Julia asked.

I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."

Thunder shook the building.

"We are not fools, Percy Jackson and Julia Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."

I didn't know what she was talking about. All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room or Julia was the one who put pink dye in the water supply in the school. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book. Or Julia was the one who put whip cream in peoples' pillows in the boy dorms.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Why am I left out of this conservation?!" Julia yelled confused as Mrs. Dodds silence her with a growl as she whimpered.

"Ma'am, I don't..."

"Your time is up," she hissed.

Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.

Then things got even stranger.

Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.

"Press the sword charm on your bracelet, Julia!" He yelled.

Julia looked confused and shrugged and touched by a sword charm on her bracelet as it turned into sword that was similier to the sword Mr. Brunner uses on tournament day as she looked surprised as if it was made out of air as she kept touching it.

"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.

Mrs. Dodds lunged at us.

With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.

Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes. My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.

She snarled, "Die, honey!"

And she flew straight at us.

Julia got in her way as she slashed at it wildly and Mrs. Dodds slashed at her and she almost dodged it as she was slashed at the side of the her head and looked at me with a pained expression and the sword, I had in my hand. Mrs. Dodds made a U-turn and started going towards me, missing my sister. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword. The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. _Hissss!_ Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan.

She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching us.

We were alone.

There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.

A stunned Julia was there with her bracelet jingling as she looked like she was going to faint and was very pale as she almost collapsed.

Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but us. My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.

Had I imagined the whole thing?

"I must be fucking hallucinating right because I just saw Mrs. Creepy old shitty hag turn into a real shitty hag, I really need to go take shit real bad now." Julia said at last, her voice squeaky as I agreed with her.

Both of us went back outside. It had started to rain. Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked and shivering from her swim and from the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."

I said, "Who?"

"Who the fuck?"

"Our teacher. Duh!"

Both of us blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and turned away as Julia looked stumped. Julia asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.

He said, "Who?" But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at her, so I thought he was messing with us.

"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."

"Yeah real funny and I am Rainbow Dash." She said sarcastically.

Thunder boomed overhead.

I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. We went over to him. He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."

I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it. Julia looked a bit annoyed and looked at the pen as if it was from outer space.

"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"

He stared at me blankly. "Who?"

"The bitchy hag, who loves to give us detentions." Julia responded.

"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."

"How many have I told you, please keep that language to a minimum."

"A million times." Julia grumbled as she crossed her arms

He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy and Julia, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"

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**Review please or RR**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians but I own Julia Jackson (My OC)**

**This is my first story, okay so review!**

**_Julia _**_**and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief**_

_**Chapter 1**_

_The super old ladies knit the socks of death for Godzilla _

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**_Andromeda Juliana Jackson POV_**

**Ever since the incident at the museum**, I was freaking out like a bird on steroids. I really need to shit very badly but I was used to my brother's hallucinations by now but this is one is speeding to the top of my weirdest things I ever seen in my entire life list. Boy, life seems to hate me because it seems the whole school is doing some kind of prank for revenge ever since the pink dye incident, people these days can't seem to take a fucking joke. But this prank is going to far because I think I need to be on medication or worse a mental hospital.

Every so often I would try to tell people do you know where Mrs. Dodds went? But they would look at me like I am a metal escapee. Like this for example:

_**Flashback time!**_

_1 hour earlier_

_I looked across the yard and saw a rich kid that was fumbling with his jacket named Nathan Kurk._

_"Do you know where the fuck Mrs. Dodds went?" I asked as Nathan looked at me like I belonged to a metal hospital._

_"Who?" he asked._

_"Mrs. Dodds, the fucking shitty hag who is a bitch to Satan." I explained as Nathan looked green._

_"AW DUDE, that's gross!" He yelled. _

_"Not like that!" I said panicking as I turned around coughing when I imagined it as he looked at me._

_"Not fucking cool, boys these days." I muttered as I turned around to see him looking at my butt._

_"FUCKING PERVERT, JESUS CHRIST!" I yelled as I slapped in the face and ran away._

**_Ending Flashback time_**

Well, my brother was helping me which is good but I was about to give up, almost when this perky blond women stepped inside the bus after that incident.

Keyword: Almost.

Grover could never fool me because ever since I known Grover, he is a very bad liar. Like the oblivious person can know if he is lying.

Every time I mention Mrs. Dodds, he would not look at me in the eyes and hesitate before answering. Something is going on where supernatural forces are at work or I am being stupid and dramatic. I didn't have time to think because of all the exams going on at school and worrying about brother being injured and thinking about plans that would protect Percy from Gabe.

Gabe, the fucking bane of my life, that stupid motherfucking, shitty, whoring, asshole bitch! I hate him so much, I wanted to tear him to pieces and just injure him even a little cut or scratch but I would endanger my brother if Gabe survives. But never mind that, I worry about that later. But the nightmares, it makes me want to slap myself to oblivion and piss my pants like no tomorrow. Every time I closed my eyes I always see Mrs. Dodds turn into that-that hag, it was so unreal and it scared me. Of how if I want to find out more, I would be sucked into a more dangerous life, a life that would kill my loved ones even Percy.

The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.

I started feeling pissed off most of the time. My grades slipped from Bs to Fs, so fast like a shooting star flying around the earth.

I noticed a change in my brother because he gets into more arguments with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I always have to stop them from fighting which I always win. Reverse psychology rules ever since I found a book on it. (So awesome) We were sent out into the hallway in almost every class.

Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked Percy for the millionth time why he was too lazy to study for spelling tests, he snapped. He called him an old sot. I was laughing so hard, the whole class looked at me in confusion, I told them what it means and soon people were laughing. Soon I planned out my prank to make sure I would be expelled. It was soo funny, I wanted to record the look on their faces but my 'borrowed' IPhone was returned and it sucked. The prank involved a monkey, a banana, phone, and a bucket filled with peanut butter.

The headmaster sent our mom two letter the following week, making it official: Percy and I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.

Well that was a interesting school year and another nightmare to scare the shit out of me. Oh how I love me life! (Sarcasm)

I was homesick and miserable.

I wanted to be with our mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public schools and put up with our asshole of a stepfather and his shitty poker parties.

And yet… there were things we'll miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was somewhat strange. I was worried how he'd survive next year without us.

I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well without being kinda pushed to the extremes.

As exam week got closer, Latin was kinda the only test I studied for.

I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him, which creeped me out.

The evening before our finals, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room and banged my head against the wall and screamed in frustration.

Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, taunting me to keep reading, the letters doing one-eighties and invading my personal space and filling my vision with those letters as if they were trying to blind me. There was no way I was going to remember how to spell the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.

I paced the room, feeling like I was suffocating against the wall or drowning and I started to I started to hyperventilate from the stress and frustration. Then I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Julia Jackson.

I took a deep breath and calmed down my breathing as I focused on the happy memories. I picked up the mythology book and flipped the pages around and started thinking.

I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried because he was the only teacher who doesn't start to put so much pressure and doesn't mind my pranks and calls me retarded student.

I opened the door as I walked towards the boys dorm because they are closer to the teachers' offices. I heard footsteps as I hid in the conner where the shadows hid me as the footsteps got closer. I grabbed the person who might be a student here and twisted his or her arm around his back as he started to panic and I kicked him in the ribcage. I heard a groan as I turned his head to see his face but he wouldn't let me because he kept flailing his hands around as I covered his mouth to prevent screaming.

"Who are you?" I whispered in his ear as he stopped and groaned.

I looked at his face and saw sea-green eyes and messy raven hair as I gasped and dropped him onto the ground.

"Dude, seriously don't ever sneak up on me again." He groaned as he rubbed his stomach where I kicked him.

"Well sorry, I thought you were a intruder." I whispered-yelled in his ear. He looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, like someone is gonna come here and kill us." He said sarcastically.

I looked at him seriously. "Anything can happen Perky." I giggled as he groaned at that nickname.

"So why are you here?" He asked me.

"Asking help." I replied cheerfully.

"Me too, Andy." He replied in a high-pitched voice as I gasped dramatically.

"I do not sound like that and stop using my first name like a boy name." I demanded as I slapped his face, leaving a red mark.

"Hey, I thought you would stop abusing me!" He whined as I smirked.

"Old habits die hard." I answered as I skipped towards the teachers office and Percy following me like a grumpy old man.

Both of us walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was opened by a little bit, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.

We were three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "… worried about Percy and Julia, sir."

Percy froze as I made my footsteps a lot quieter and stopped at the door to listen to conservation.

Well, I'm a eavesdropper just to listen to gossip and rumors but it's time to my skills to the test as Percy waved his arms quietly as I shook my head and put my ear against the wall. Percy isn't a eavesdropper but he only does it when it is important like right now. Well since we are twins, we kinda are opposites like Percy tries to be a goody two shoes while I'll be badass troublemaker. He likes blue while I like green, maybe blue but only blue food and clothes.

Percy inched closer to the door

"… alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"

"We would only make matters worse by rushing them," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the twins to mature more."

"But they may not have time. The summer solstice deadline- "

"Will have to be resolved without them, Grover. Let them enjoy their ignorance while he still can."

"Sir, they saw her… ."

"Their imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince them of that."

"Sir, I … I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."

"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy and Julia alive until next fall-"

The mythology book dropped out of Percy's hand and hit the floor with a thud. I glared at him for blowing our cover.

Mr. Brunner went silent.

Percy picked up the book and backed down the hall as I ran towards him and followed him, my heart hammering as many outcomes would come running inside my mind as I started to shake a bit.

A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than our wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.

Percy opened the nearest door and slipped inside as I followed him and closed the door with a small click.

A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside our door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.

A bead of sweat trickled down my face as I started to shake.

Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."

"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn …"

"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."

"Don't remind me."

The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.

We waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.

Finally, Percy slipped out into the hallway first.

I looked at him as I put a hand where my heart is and looked where Grover went.

"Well, I guess this is Goodnight." Percy said shakily as he looked pale as a sheet of paper and turned around to go back to his dorm. I grabbed his hand as he stopped and looked at me as I gave him a bear-hug and kissed him on the cheek.

"Don't worry about me, we will figure this out." I said as my voice shook as he awkwardly patted me on the back. I kept hugging which was like forever as I let go and headed back to my dorm as I tripped on something and saw my book.

"Damn it." I cursed as I picked up my Mythology book and went back to my dorm. I put changed my clothes in the bathroom. I didn't understand what we heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing and be done with it like every problem I have. But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about us behind our backs. They thought we were in some kind of extreme danger from the way they were talking.

I was in bed by the time it hit midnight as I sighed. I turned off the lamp and prepared a night of nightmares and memories, I would never want to see as I took a deep breath and took out a book from under the bed.

The book was actually a diary as I let out a chuckle as I remembered how I got it.

**_Flashback Time_**

_7 years ago, Montauk Beach_

_A laugh and scream echoed throughout the beach as Sally Jackson smiled at her children playing in the sand as a sand castle collapsed on top of Julia as she struggled to dig out as she finally got out. There was a crab hanging on her ear as she screamed and ran around the beach and Percy was chasing her as Sally shook her head as she kept unpacking. _

_"Mommy." Julia said as she looked up to see her cute, round sea-green eyes that remind her so much of Poseidon as she noticed something different about. They still have that spark of mischievous and eyes filled with mirth, happiness, and caring. She noticed the once glint of innocence was now replaced by a glint of cautiousness, she shook her heads_

_"What's wrong, Andromeda?" Sally replied as Julia fidgeted._

_"Why do we live with Gabe?" She questioned as Sally sighed._

_"He protects us." She answers as Julia gasped._

_"He, that disgusting slob of a pig." She replied with anger as she had a look of murder._

_"No, it's just you wouldn't understand." Sally said as she put a arm around Julia and tried to soothe her._

_"Because, I'm just a kid." She mumbled as Sally sighed and took out a book. The book she had was encrusted with pearls around the book as it had wave designs. There was a horse on the cover but the horse had a horn and wings as it stood in a regal position and there was __Κόρη της Θάλασσας entitled on it. It was colored in shades of blue and green to represent her daughters eyes. Julia gasped as she took it from her grasp and hugged it so hard like it was the best thing in the word. Julia was soon engulfed in a hug as Julia snuggled her face in her hair._

_"Happy Birthday, Andromeda Julia Jackson." Sally said as she was soon showered in kisses._

_"Thank you so much, it's the best gift ever- and hey, what's this book?" Julia said as she stopped to look at her mother._

_"It's a diary." Sally answered as Julia looked at her questionably._

_"What's a diary?" She asked as she tilted her head in a adorable fashion._

_"A diary is where you can write events in your everyday life and write comments, thoughts, and feelings and you can write anything in it." She answered as Julia let out a squeal and hugged her real tight._

_"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so very much!" She squealed as let go of the hug and opened the book and finding a sea-green pen with a dolphin on it and wave designs on it._

_**Flashback time end**_

I sighed as I got out the special pen and wrote a entry inside the diary.

**_Entry 2,434 _**

_May 1st_

_Dear Diary_

_What's up, so I had a extremely crazy day remember the strict, stern hag or Mrs. Dodds who is a servant to Satan, Who's goal is to make my life a shitty hell like I'm so kind of disobeying devil spawn and she didn't even spare my brother._

_Yeah, so we went to the museum for some kind of Greek and Roman Exhibits which I think is crazy because Mr. Brunner thinks it's a fun idea to teach Greek in Latin. But Latin is Roman people and guess what? I can understand Greek and Roman for some reason because the Latin and Greek words turn into English words which is awesome. So when Nancy, the devil spawn, was somehow dunked and froze in the fountain and blamed us Mrs. Dodds came in and took us inside the museum and guess what? Grover had the courage to stand up against Mrs. Dodds and talk back at her which failed. So I thought she was going to give detentions which included cleaning the answers in old math textbooks and cleaning up the gum under the desks which is so nasty. Well Mrs. Dodds turned into some kind of fucked up, shitty hag for reals and I almost pissed myself. Well Mr. Brunner came in and saved the day with a pen, Yes a pen. That was fucked up and Percy grabbed the pen and it turned into a motherfucking sword, the same sword Mr. Brunner uses and I thought I was hallucinating. He told me to press the sword charm on my charm bracelet which had so much charms and it turned into a motherfucking sword that was similar to the sword Percy had but the words on the handle were Έδιτπίρ which translated to Editpir (get it, it's riptide spelled backwards) and it's hard to say the English word. So the hag lunged at Percy and I somehow had foolishly try to block it but she left a mark on my face which hurt like hell and Percy somehow killed it and it exploded into golden dust. But then Everybody in campus acted like there's no Mrs. Dodds and instead there was this Perky teacher named Mrs. Kerr. But when the field trip was over. I was trying to studying but it failed and I went to the teacher's office and bumped into Percy very 'nicely' and listened to the conservation of Grover and Mr. Brunner and the talk they had was very suspicious. But we, the twins, will find out this mystery!_

_Julia Jackson out!_

The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with some of the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called both of us back inside.

For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about our eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.

"Percy, Julia," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's … it's for the best."

His tone was kind, but the words shocked me as time froze. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at us and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips. I looked sick as I growled and turned around to look at Mr. Brunner.

Percy mumbled, "Okay, sir."

I whispered in a cracked voice. "What?"

"I mean …" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for both of you. It was only a matter of time."

My heart pounded so hard, it would have been ripped from my chest.

Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out like he was only using a facade.

"Okay, if you don't want me then just say it." I said in a trembling voice as I started to back away with my fists clenching and unclenching.

"Right," Percy said, trembling.

"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say … you're not normal, Percy and Julia. That's nothing to be-"

"Thanks," Percy blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.

"Percy-"

But he was already gone.

"It's looks like I was wrong, everyone was right, we are really retarded." I said in hoarse voice and tears started forming in my eyes as Mr. Brunner looked at me sadly.

"Julia-"

I was soon gone in a flash as I wiped the tears away and sprinted to my dorm. I slammed opened my doors and sank down into my feet as I put my arms around my knees and put my heads and started sobbing.

On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase and never minding the mess I made as I grabbed my diary and shoved it into my locked and ran off.

The other guys and girls were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. Another girl was going to Disney Word, then another was going to LA. They were juvenile delinquents, like us, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.

They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city..

What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall. Maybe help out at the Candy shop and tried to get money by playing the guitar or violin.

I played instruments since I was seven years old, it was fun and relaxing. It helps take my mind off things like I'm in my own imagination land and was never worrying about things. I also play the piano and I teach myself how to play by stealing music books from stores where no one was looking.

"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."

They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed which is normal for, I always sink into the shadows, ignoring people except the bullies who give me a headache.

The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound we were on, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.

During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound. While Percy was making noise while I played with my charm bracelet.

Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.

"Looking for monsters?" I said breaking the ice.

Percy said at the same time I did, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"

Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"

Percy confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam as I shook my head.

"Goody-two shoes Jackson" I muttered.

Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you guys hear?"

"Oh … not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"

"Yeah not much, but the whole fucking thing." I said sarcastically.

He winced. "Look, Percy and Julia… I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"

"You're-"

"Grover-"

"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you guys were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and …"

"You can stop lying and tell me the fucking truth."

"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."

His ears turned pink.

From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take these, okay? In case you need me this summer."

The card was in fancy script, which was murder on our dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:

_Grover Underwood_

_Keeper_

_Half-Blood Hill_

_Long Island, New York_

_(800) 009-0009_

"What's Half-"

"Wait, what's Half-"

"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um … summer address."

I rolled my eyes because Grover is lying... again. Seriously, can he stop lying because that's the suckiest lie I ever heard.

"Okay," Percy said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion." I face palmed.

"So oblivious, Percy.' I muttered under my breath.

He nodded. "Or … or if you need me."

"Why would I need you?"

It came out harsher than he meant it to.

"Wait Percy didn't mean it like that." I quickly said as I waved my hands around and glared at Percy as he looked away.

Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy and Julia, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."

I stared at him like he was crazy and had no words.

All year long, Percy gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. While I tried to prevent the fights when Percy is not around or help fight the bullies, if things gotten out of control. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without us. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended us.

"Grover," Percy said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"

"Yeah, we can handle it." I cut in.

There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover, Percy and I filed outside with everybody else.

We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand. The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.

I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.

All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.

The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at us as I shivered because the eyes of the three old ladies seemed like they were looking in my soul.

I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.

"Grover?" Percy said. "Hey, man-"

"G-man, what's wrong, cat got your tongue?" I joked.

"This is no time for joking." Grover said shakily.

"Tell me they're not looking at both of you. They are, aren't they?"

"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"

"Yeah, I wonder if these socks are made for Godzilla."

"Not funny, Percy and Julia. Not funny at all."

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.

"We're getting on the bus," he told us. "Come on.".

"What?" Percy said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."

"Yeah!" I said. "What he said."

"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but both of us stayed back.

Across the road, the old ladies were still watching us. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla.

At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.

The passengers cheered.

"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"

Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu and my knees were shaking as if I was holding the weight of the sky as I shook it off.

Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering while Percy looked better than Grover but he was a little pale.

"Grover?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you not telling me?"

He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, Julia, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"

"Some old ladies, is it some kind of omen?"

"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like … Mrs. Dodds, are they?"

His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than the hag, Percy was talking about. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."

"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."

He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older like more older than George Washington.

He said, "You saw her snip the cord."

"Yes, so what about it." I said, raising my eyebrow.

"Yeah. So?" But even as he said it, I knew it was a big deal.

"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."

"What last time?"

"Wait, what?"

"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."

"Grover," Percy said. "What are you talking about?"

"Grover, you are starting to scare me, is it a prank because it's not working." I chuckled nervously.

"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."

This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could-not.

"Is this like a superstition or something?" he asked.

"Stop it, maybe a omen from the Mayans?" I joked but sweat was starting to pour down from my forehead.

No answer.

"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"

"No, it's the end of the word." I said sarcastically, shoving my elbow towards Percy.

He looked at us mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin. I was scared as I felt a cold chill in the air as I shivered, I hope I was wrong.

* * *

**R&R**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians**

**Rated T for cussing and stuff.**

**Sorry about the long wait because I had upcoming SOLS and practice and review stuff and I had a band concert to prepare and I was getting frustrated of all the work I was getting plus it's super hot down here. I was also lazy and my brother and grandma kept hogging the computer which sucks a lot and I read some Fanfictions for inspiration and stuff.**

**This is my first story, okay so review!**

* * *

**_Julia _****_and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief_**

_**Chapter 1**_

* * *

_Grover unexpectedly loses his pants_

* * *

Confession time: We ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal but it was kinda Julia's idea and mine at the same time.

I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking us out, looking at us like we were people who was going to die or zombies, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"

Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made us promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. I know that's a promise I wasn't going to keep. Instead of waiting, both of us got our suitcases, slipped outside, and caught the first taxi uptown.

"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," We both said to the driver.

A word about our mother, before you meet her**.**

Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.

The only good break she ever got was meeting our dad.

I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. It's the same thing with my sister because she can only remember a warm smile from her childhood. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because _it_ makes her sad. She has no pictures.

See, they weren't married. She told us he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important journey, and he never came back.

Lost at sea, my mom told us. Not dead. Lost at sea. Which is both the truth and the lie at the same time, as Julia told me.

She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised us on her own. She never complained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew we weren't easy kids because of our disabilities.

Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nicknamed him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts. While Julia nicknamed Gabe-bitch Ug-assholeness which is kinda funny but I never seen her tried to hit him because if you insult her or her family or me then you would lose a tooth.

Between the three of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he, my sister and I got along ... well, when we came home is a good example.

I walked into our little apartment with my sis trailing around me, complaining and grumbling of how Gabe is being such a pervert. While I hoping our mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.

Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."

"Yeah, we are home, the school just fucking ended."

"Where's my mom?"

"Working," he said, ignoring her response. "You got any cash?"

That was it. No _Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?_

Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.

He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever we were home, he expected us to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guys secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out. Even I can't tell my sister because I trust most of my secrets to her. But I knew Smelly Gabe threaten her too because she just went along with it, not complaining.

"I don't have any cash," I told him while Julia just sighed and digged into her pocket.

He raised a greasy eyebrow.

Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.

"You guys took a taxi from the bus station," he said. "Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"

Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at us with a twinge of sympathy. While Julia just sneered at him in response. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kids just got here." He said ignoring the sneer from my sister.

"Am I _right_?_"_ Gabe repeated.

Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony. Julia made a gagging sound and took out some money and threw it onto the table.

"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."

"Go to hell, you piece of shit." She said.

"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"

"And you girl, you will stay here!" he yelled at my sister as she sighed as she waved me off to go without her.

I slammed the door to our room, which really wasn't our room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving our stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.

I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.

Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.

I heard a crash and a scream interrupting my thoughts as I listen through the wall into the next room.

"You piece of shit!" A voice that was Smelly Gabe.

"Go to the hell Ug-assholeness!" Julia yelled through the room as a another crash was heard. Then everything was quiet as Julia slammed the door open with her cloak with a hood on, covering her face as she went to the bathroom. She always goes to the bathroom every single day, but I just don't know why she wears her cloak with a hood on.

But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic—how he'd made us promise that we wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone—something—was looking for me right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.

Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy, Julia?"

She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.

My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me, Julia or Gabe.

"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"

Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought us a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when we came home.

"Percy, where's your sister?" She asked, releasing me from the hug.

"In the bathroom." I replied as I pointed to the bathroom door, as the bathroom door open and Julia came in with her cloak in her hand as she had a sour look on her face and had two bandages on her face. But as soon she saw mom, she smiled and dropped the cloak as she tackled into her as they fell on the floor, hugging each other.

We sat together on the edge of the bed. While I attacked the blueberry sour strings, and Julia stealing some blueberry gumdrops and plopped them in her mouth as she giggled, good-natured. She ran both of her hands through our extremely messy hair and demanded to know everything we haven't put in our letters. She didn't mention anything about us getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy and girl doing all right?

I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her. While Julia was doing the opposite because sometimes she does the opposite of things I do even through we are siblings and act like twins even though Julia is older than me by a year.

From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"

I gritted my teeth as Julia scowled and crossed her arms and huffed.

My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Smelly Gabe.

For her sake, we both tried to sound upbeat about our last days at Yancy Academy. I told her I wasn't too down about the expulsion. While Julia just said it was okay like it was a daily occurrence which it kinda is. Both of us lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends and some enemies, courtesy of Julia and her anger issues. We've done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did while Julia complained about it of how I liked Nancy. Both of us put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad and the pranks we have done.

Until that trip to the museum ...

"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"

"Yeah bro, what has scared the 'mighty Perseus Achilles Jackson now'?" She said putting air quotes around the mighty Perseus Achilles Jackson.

"No, Mom."

I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.

She pursed her lips as Julia looked at me in disapproval which kinda hurt. She knew I was holding back, but she didn't push me.

"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."

Both of our eyes widened and Julia looked slack jawed."Montauk?"

"Three nights—same cabin."

"Tomorrow?"

"When?"

She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."

I couldn't believe it. My mom, my sis and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.

Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"

"Call the devil's name and then the devil appears." She muttered under her breath as she looked at mom, eyes pleading to punch but she shook her head no and looked at her in the eyes as if they were doing some kind of deal. Finally Julia sighed and cut off their mind communication like Aquaman. Stupid ADHD.

I wanted to punch him just like Julia, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.

"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."

Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"

"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."

"Stupid Gabe, can't get off his fat ass and start working for money." She muttered as she went to the closet to pack up.

"Of course he will," our mom said evenly. "Your stepfather is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."

Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"

"Mom always has to do the work, not Gabe." She murmured as she got out some clothes and threw them into the suitcase.

"Yes, honey," my mother said.

"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."

"Very possessive of his car." She murmured as she put her instruments in her cases and started organizing her music sheets.

"We'll be very careful."

Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if these kids apologizes for interrupting my poker game."

Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week. But Julia looked tempted to hit him with her pan to give him a taste of his own medicine as she clenched her hands so tight, it turned white. But my mom's eyes warned us not to make him mad. Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?

"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."

"Yes, I am so sorry for your 'super-important' poker game." She said sarcastically, putting air quotes around super-important.

Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in our statements.

"Yeah, whatever," he decided.

He went back to his game.

"Thank you, Percy," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"

"Even you, I won't let you off the hook easily Andromeda." She said sternly as Julia groaned and went back packing.

For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride—as if our mom too felt an odd chill in the air.

But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and stopped to ruffled Julia's hair as she got a "Hey!" in response and went to back make Gabe his seven-layer dip.

"Hey Mom, wait for me cause I'm gonna help you cook!" She yelled as she zipped the suitcase and ran to the kitchen so fast, she was a cheetah. Oh and by the way, my sister can make insanely awesome meals because of her cooking skills, she inherited from Mom.

An hour later we were ready to leave.

Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch us lug my mom's bags and our suitcases to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking—and more important, his '78 Camaro—for the whole weekend.

"Not a scratch on this car, brain kids," he warned me as we loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."

"Stupid asshole." She muttered and grabbed her guitar case and wore the case like a backpack because it has a strap.

Like we be the one driving. We were twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame us.

Watching him lumber back toward the apartment building, I got so mad I did something I can't explain, even my sister did the same thing as me. As Gabe reached the doorway, we made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over our hearts, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the staircase as if he'd been shot from a cannon. Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out. Julia guffawed so hard, she went rolling around the floor.

I got in the Camaro with my sister following behind and told my mom to step on it.

Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.

Both of us loved the place.

We'd been going there since we were babies. Our mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but we both knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.

As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.

We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples our mom had brought from work.

I guess I should explain the blue food.

See, Gabe had once told our mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, our mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This—along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano—was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe.

She did have a rebellious streak, like us.

When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told us stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told us about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.

Eventually, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk—my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell us the same things she always did, but we never got tired of hearing them.

"He was kind, Percy and Julia," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. Both of you have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."

Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you guys right now, Percy and Julia. He would be so proud."

I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about us? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, and a dyslexic, hyperactive, prankster girl who always gets in trouble with a F+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time and tenth time in six years. If you are thinking about the tenth time my sister got kicked out is because she went to four girls only schools which she didn't like because the girls there were always gossiping and fussing over their clothes and makeup.

"How old was I?" We both asked at the same time. "I mean ... when he left?"

She watched the flames. "He was only with me for two summers, Percy, Julia. Right here at this beach. This cabin."

"But... he knew us when we were a baby."

"Yeah, because I was born before Percy but he should have stayed here with you!" Julia yelled, trying to believe her thoughts only to know she was wrong.

"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw both of you. He had to leave before you two were born."

I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile. The same smile, Julia always talked about since she was six years old until she stopped talking when she was seven.

Both of us had always assumed he knew us as a baby. Our mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen us...

I felt angry at my father. Maybe Julia was angry at him but never showed it. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry our mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.

"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"

"Yeah, so which school are we going to?"

She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.

"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."

"Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out.

"Maybe because you are tired of us making trouble." Julia whispered but then looked down at her shoes as a tear slid down her face.

My mom's eyes welled with tears. She took both of our hands, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, Julia, no. I—I _have_ to, honey. For your own good. I have to send both of you away."

Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for me to leave Yancy.

"Because I'm not normal," I said.

"Yeah, we are 'abnormal'" Julia said as she put air quotes around abnormal as her eyes turned a little misty.

"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy, Julia. But you don't realize how important you guys are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought bothof you'd finally be safe."

"Safe from what?"

"Wait, what?"

She met both of our eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me—all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.

During third grade, two men in a black trench coats had stalked us on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, both of them went away growling, but no one believed us when we told them that under their broad-brimmed hats, the men only had one eye, right in the middle of their head.

Before that—a really early memory. We were in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. But I also remembered that the same thing happened to my big sister one year ago before the snake incident. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.

In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and we were forced to move.

I knew I should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about my weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword. But I couldn't make myself tell her. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that. Julia shot me look to tell but I couldn't do that to end the trip.

"I've tried to keep both of you as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Percy, Julia-the place your father wanted to send you guys. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."

"My father wanted me to go to a special school?"

"A school or maybe a safe house... Yeah, a safe house!"

"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."

My head was spinning. Why would our dad—who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see us born, well maybe me actually because my sister was born a year before me— talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?

"I'm sorry, Percy, Julia,"she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send both of you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to both of you for good."

"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."

"We are gonna stay in the summer because it is summer camp, right?"

She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if we asked her any more questions she would start to cry.

That night I had a vivid dream.

It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. Julia was at right side of me, yelling and screaming for them to stop as she was running slow motion but something was pushing her back. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.

I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew we would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and both of screamed at the same time, _No!_.

I woke with a start. I heard a scream up on the top bunk as Julia rolled out of the bed and slammed into the floor with a _'Thunk'. _She groaned as she lifted herself from the covers and pushed it away as she rubbed her head.

"My head... Ow!" She said.

Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.

With the next thunderclap, our mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."

"What!" Yes what indeed.

I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end. Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door. Julia looked scared as she heard that voice as she scrambled back into her covers in fright. I would've laughed at her if not for the situation.

My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.

Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.

"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?" Julia gasped at him and almost fainted but the next thunderclap kept her awake as flashes of thunder showed her pale and shaking.

My mother looked at us in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.

"Percy, Julia" she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"

Both of us frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing.

_"O_ _Zeu kai alloi theoi!"_ he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you _tell_ her?"

I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on—and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...

My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before:_"Percy, Julia._ Tell me _now_!"

We stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me, her face deathly pale in the flashes of lightning. But Julia was more paler than ever as she kept looking at Grover then at mom.

She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. Both of you. _Go_!_" _

Julia looked at Grover and stammered something about donkeys and grabbed her coat and suitcase and her instruments' case and ran for it as she screamed. Grover ran behind for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.

Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians series but I do own Julia Jackson who is my OC BTW **

**A/N: I hope you like it and stuff but I am getting stressed because of all the SOLS coming up and I have to study. NOT, okay JK. I really love all the support you give me and it makes me giddy inside, I will work hard if you keep reviewing and following and favoriting. I have plans for the future soon that involves traveling through alternate universes and stuff but okay READ, COMMENT, FOLLOW, FAVORITE, and REVIEW! Plus I was so sick and went to the doctor to get a vaccine or shot and so many SOLS! **

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**_Julia _****_and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief_**

_**Chapter 1**_

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_My Mother and Brother are Matadors_

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**_Andromeda Juliana Jackson POV_**

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We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind shield. I didn't know how our mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.

Every time there was a flash of lightning, a chill climbed my back as if it was warning me to do something as I shivered and I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants or maybe those hairy costume pants that he wore for Hallowean as a Satyr with those fake horns that seem real.

But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo— lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.

All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other or maybe your my secret cousin?" I asked stupidly as Percy said the same thing without the cousin question.

Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us and was ignoring my question. Why does everybody always ignore me, am I that invisible seriously. Life's a fucking bitch. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching both of you."

"Watching me?"

"Grover, keep your stalker issues to yourself please."

"Keeping tabs on both of you. Making sure both of you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friends," he added hastily but was still ignoring me which pissed me off."I am your friend."

"Um, what's with the get-up because I want some fucking answers, RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!"

"Julia, don't you use that language right now!" Mom said sternly at me as I whimpered in shame.

"Urn ... what are you, exactly?"

"That doesn't matter right now."

"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"

"No, actually, a real hairy horse." I piped up.

Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"

I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.

"Goat!" he cried.

"Wait, what?"

"What?"

"I'm a goat from the waist down."

"You just said it didn't matter."

"Yeah, you said it didn't matter."

"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoof for such an insult!"

"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"

"You are just making a metaphor, right?"

"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy, Julia? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"

"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!"

"So there was a Mrs. Dodds, score for team Jackson!"

"Of course."

"Then why—"

"Why-"

"The less you knew, the fewer monsters you've attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you've think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. Both of you started to realize who you are."

"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?"

"So you mean that I'm a wizard, been there, done that."

The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.

"Percy, Julia," our mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you guys to safety."

"Safety from what? Who's after me?"

"What going on right now, are we being kidnapped?"

"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey and horse comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."

"Grover!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"

I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird, well maybe yeah but not greek myths but I swear this is the weirdest dream I ever had since the falling food and cloud spirit, telling me I was destined to be a food ninja and defeat the mighty lord vegetable and his evil healthy minions. Shit, stupid imagination and ADHD.

Our mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.

Where are we going?" Percy asked.

"The summer camp I told both of you about." Our mother's voice was tight; she was trying for our sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."

"The place you didn't want me to go."

"The place that you were scared of."

"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."

"Because some old ladies cut yarn."

"And stupid hag that used to be Mrs. Dodds."

"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die and Mrs. Dodds, she wasn't a old hag," Grover then lower his voice to a whisper. "She's a kindly one."

"Whoa. You said 'you.'"

"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"

"You meant 'you.' As in me."

"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."

"Is it just me because it seems we are wasting some precious time here!" I said interrupted them with a pissed tone because Grover is ignoring me and confusing me so much a lot.

"Guys!" our mom said.

She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.

"What was that?" Percy asked.

"Yes, a excellent question as I quote 'What the fucking mother of god is that?!' "

"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question.

"Another mile. Please. Please. Please."

I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive. I just don't know what is going to happen but there a horrible feeling as my gut churned very hard like someone important was to dying but I was just to scared to find out. I know what you are thinking, the hothead, stubborn, hardheaded, potty mouth Julia Jackson, Scared! Well people do have feelings even the cold ones do and about every living thing on planet Earth or maybe the whole galaxy and stuff. Well enough of that but this suspense is killing me now and I know what you are talking about. Curiosity is a very bad thing like the quote 'Curiosity killed the cat' and all the stuff and blah, blah, blah. Well whatever but back to ultimate suspense stuff.

Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the hag with pointed teeth and leathery wings. The shock and intense feelings that was adrenaline fueled into me as I battled the thing and the screech it made, made me shudder.

Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the pen/sword he had thrown to Percy. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.

I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time.

I peeled my forehead off the floor and crashed into the ceiling as I gave a cry of pain had rubbed my head. "That hurt a lot!"

Percy peeled his forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."

"Julia, Percy!" my mom shouted.

"I'm okay..."

"100% super alright. Not."

I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's-side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.

Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to us in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"

He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, and then slapping him back and forth on his face, thinking, 'No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!'

Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.

"Julia, Percy," my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.

I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a champion wrestler. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.

I swallowed hard. "Who is—"

"Percy, Julia," our mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."

Our mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too as well as Percy's. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking. I crashed into the windows as it shattered and rain started pounding on me as I got out.

"Climb out the passenger's side!" Our mother told me. "Percy, Julia—you have to run. Do you see that big tree?"

"What?"

"What now?!"

Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

"That's the property line," our mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."

"Mom, you're coming too."

"Please, tell me you are coming right now, just please." I begged at her.

Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean. Tears started to prickled at the edges of my vision as I threw myself onto her, crying and hugging onto her. I inhaled our mother's scent, cinnamon, blue chocolate cookies, candy, and all that sweet things that made her our mother just to remember her for the last time.

"If this is the last time I see you," I said hoarsely. "I love you with all my heart and I always loved how you pay attention to me even if you are scolding me."

"No!" Percy shouted. "Don't worry, Mom will survive." Percy said, trying to convince himself. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."

"Sweetheart, Julia please take care of Percy, will you if I am gone." Mom said hugging me too and kissed my cheek as I let go of her and looked at her with watering eyes.

"I promise with my life." I said as I turned to go to the car.

"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.

The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands—huge meaty hands—were swinging at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns …

"He doesn't want us," our mother told me. "He wants both of you. Besides, I can't cross the property line."

"But..."

"Percy please understand, she can't make it."

"We don't have time, Percy. Go. Please."

"She can and she will, you can't just give up Sis!" He yelled through the rain as I grabbed my bags and slinger them over my back. "It's not like you to give up!"

"You don't understand the fucking situation right now!" I yelled back at him. "Even I don't understand but the look on mom's face, it means that not all of us is going to make it back alive!"

The monster thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.

Percy climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."

"I told you—"

"Percy, can't you understand-"

"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help me with Grover."

Percy didn't wait for her answer. Percy scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car. I looked at him in suprise as he lifted Grover like he was a feather, but man, that boy can eat! But mom ran to his aid to help carry Grover as I looked over my shoulder to see the bull closing on us.

Together, they draped Grover's arms over thier shoulders and started stumbling uphill through wet waist-high grass. I went to them to help so we can get to the hill faster and it seems to work, there was a big bellowing sound as I stiffen.

Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine—bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except under wear—I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms—which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns—enormous black-and-white horns with points you just couldn't get from sharpening a knife or some stake.

I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.

I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "It can't be real, it's a myth." I whispered in shock and fear.

"They weren't always myths." Mom responded, hustling us to go faster.

"That's—"

"Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you."

"But he's the Min—"

"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."

"It's looks like that phrase was actually real."

The pine tree was still way too far—a hundred yards uphill at least.

I glanced behind me again.

The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the win dows—or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about a hundred feet away.

"Food?" Grover moaned.

"Shhh," Percy told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"

"Isn't he supposed to attack right now." I lowered my voice to a whisper so the Minotaur wouldn't hear us.

"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."

As if on cue, the man-bull bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.

Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying.

Oopsiey daisy.

"Percy, Julia," my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way— directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"

"How do you know all this?"

"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping both of you near me."

"Keeping me near you? But—"

"How is that selfish?"

Another bellow of rage, and the bull-man started tromping uphill.

He'd smelled us.

The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.

The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.

My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, Julia, Percy! Separate! Remember what I said."

I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right—it was our only chance. I sprinted to the right while Percy went to the left and, turned, and I saw the monster bearing down on Percy, I saw a glimpse of his ugly black eyes which glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat that expired by many years, maybe hundreds or maybe thousands.

He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at Percy chest.

I yelled. "No!"

I did the most stupidest thing ever that may cost my life. I charged at Percy and pushed Percy out of the way as the bull charged him and I took his place. Well, life has risks and karma's a big bitch. I ducked and slid under the bull as it charged at me and got a good look at it's undies. Never will I laugh and insult about a monster wearing some nasty underwear because I smelled a good whiff of it.

The smell of that thing was so disgusting and I think I swallowed a bit of my barf. Gross! That smell was like Gabe's alcoholic smell combined with the smell of sex and pee. EWWWW now that I imagined that, just gross.

It's not everyday you meet a very smelly Minotaur trying to kill you. The Minotaur stormed pass me while I was crouching and stormed pass me and Percy who was groaning and sprawled on the ground, rubbing his head as the Minotaur crashed into the nearby tree and roared in pain. My gut churned as the Minotaur was both eyeing Percy who was yet to stand up and our Mother as she set Grover on the ground in fresh, wet, green grass.

"No." I whispered.

I ran towards Percy and crouched on the ground. I held his cheek with my left hand and raised my right hand a few inches from his face. I slapped three times, back and forth and stopped as he grabbed my hand when I was going for another slap.

"Stop." He groaned as I stand up and pulled him towards his feet.

He stood up, shakily and fell to his knees and groaned. I dropped my backpack on the floor and zipped it open very hard. I dug my hand through the piles of clothes I buried there.

There was a huge roar as the Minotaur charged straight at us as I rolled away. I saw Percy who was staring down at the Minotaur as my gut churned.

_'Shit!'_ I thought as I dumped my things on the wet grass. A pile of things were on the wet grass as I eyed something that was sparkling in the moonlight.

I looked up to see Percy sidestepped, out of the way where the path, the Minotaur was charging at.

I saw cold handle that was attached to something and gripped my hand on it.

_'Found it!' _I thought excitedly. I held my frying pan as it glinted in the moonlight. I took a deep breath and grabbed Percy's hand and ran for it.

We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as our mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.

The Minotaur grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing our mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.

"Run, Percy, Julia!" she told us from the bottom of the hill. "I can't go any farther. Run!"

But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told us to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.

"Mom!"

"No!"

She caught our eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"

Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.

"No!"

Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs—the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.

The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.

I couldn't allow that.

I raised my frying pan and roared at him. "You son of a bitch," I ranted at him. "I will tear you limb from limb and make you wish you were never born!"

I saw Percy who was right beside me, stripped off his red rain jacket.

"Hey!" He screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"

"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward us, shaking his meaty fists.

I had an idea—a stupid, terrible idea that would yet to kill me, but better than no idea at all.

I charged at him, screaming bloody murder at him.

I saw Percy put his back to the big pine tree and waved his red jacket in front of the bull-man, ready to jump out the way like those Matadors I watched on TV.

But it didn't happen like that.

The bull-man charged at Percy too fast, his arms out to grab him whichever way he tried to dodge.

Time slowed down.

My legs tensed as I jumped at him from behind when he turned to face Percy, slamming into his neck.

How did I do that?

I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around one of his huge horns and I looked to see Percy on his neck, struggling to lock his arms around his neck. I then reached the head and slammed the frying pan into each one of his eyes, one at a time like playing the whack-a-mole game while holding on one of his horns.

Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes, fueling energy into me. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.

The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree that would have tossed me into the tree and throw me into unconsciousness, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.

Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around and my arms swinging around, trying to hit the bulls' eyes, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off and slam the pan into my face.

"Food!" Grover moaned.

The bull-man wheeled toward him, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I pulled the pan back with all my might and slammed it onto the bull's forehead. I heard two Snaps at the same time.

I had seconds to register that I was falling onto the ground and the painful headache that was pounding in my head and I was holding a huge bloody horn in my hand. I saw darkness creeping in my vision and soon I was knocked into unconsciousness but before my vision was black completely.

"No, Julia!" A voice screamed through my eardrums.

"Not Percy." I whispered before blackness engulfed me.

* * *

**A/N: Dun, Dun, Duh! So how did like that cliffhanger. Hope you like it! I was so bored and had a minor writer's block that lasted for a week. I'm so sorry for the long wait and stuff.**

**ro781727: I think that sounds like a great idea, I gonna do that in the next chapter.**

**Jordan. Simkovic: Yeah I know, wait until in the future I finish the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series because there will be more fun twists in upcoming sequels and Heroes of Olympus.**

**Guest: You don't have to insult the story and besides, find another story, it's not like your opinion that is the most important that matters. Plus there are stories like this like Percy is a girl and stuff or reading the books and ect.**


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